Aliança Catalana admits it does not find a candidate for Barcelona

BarcelonaTwo months ago, at a conference at Fòrum Europa Tribuna Catalunya, journalists asked Sílvia Orriols if they already had a candidate for Barcelona, and the leader of Aliança Catalana said yes. "He is a man and he is known," the head of the far-right party limited herself to saying. She did this while looking at the table where other members of the leadership and the party were seated, emphasizing that she could not say anything more until Sant Jordi's Day, when it had been agreed to present the candidate for the Catalan capital. However, the presentation of the candidate has been postponed and will not take place next week. Orriols herself announced this on Thursday in Parliament, admitting that the person they had "entrusted" to be the candidate "has gone back on their word".

Given their refusal, the head of the Islamophobic party said they are in "discussions with different people who could lead the list." "We don't want to rush," Orriols argued to postpone the announcement, after she herself had set this date to make the candidate for the Catalan capital public. In any case, she said that on Sant Jordi's Day there will be an announcement of candidates in "important cities." Aliança already has confirmed candidates in the other three provincial capitals, Orriols remarked.

The first option to be the candidate for Barcelona was the former Minister of Economy of Junts, Jaume Giró. The former Junts leader admitted that Aliança Catalana offered him to be a candidate for Barcelona in the next municipal elections and that he rejected it. He revealed this in an interview with RTVE in January: "Since I stepped aside on September 4th, I have had meetings and encounters with many people who have offered me all sorts of things, from creating a new party to forming a citizen platform. That also happened, and I listen to everyone and I kindly said no," he explained, referring to the Islamophobic party's proposal to be the leader of the list in the Catalan capital. Giró explained that the proposal was not made directly by the leader of Aliança, but by a person from the leadership, without specifying who it was.

In this crossing of possible candidates, another name that had sounded as a mayoral candidate has been that of the publicist Lluís Carrasco, who directed Joan Laporta's campaign in the last elections for the presidency of Barça and who was the ideologue of the banner with a photograph of the now blaugrana president that was hung in December 2020 next to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, with the message "Ganas de volver a veros". Carrasco, however, already communicated that he does not want to enter politics, even though his agency could take charge of Aliança's campaign in Barcelona for the 2027 municipal elections.